Analysis of At The 'National Encampment'
Ambrose Bierce 1842 (Meigs County) – 1914 (Chihuahua)
You 're grayer than one would have thought you:
The climate you have over there
In the East has apparently brought you
Disorders affecting the hair,
Which-pardon me-seems a thought spare.
You'll not take offence at my giving
Expression to notions like these.
You might have been stronger if living
Out here in our sanative breeze.
It's unhealthy here for disease.
No, I'm not as plump as a pullet.
But that's the old wound, you see.
Remember my paunching a bullet?
And how that it didn't agree
With-well, honest hardtack for me.
Just pass me the wine-I've a helly
And horrible kind of drouth!
When a fellow has that in his belly
Which didn't go in at his mouth
He's hotter than all Down South!
Great Scott! what a nasty day _that_ was
When every galoot in our crack
Division who didn't lie flat was
Dissuaded from further attack
By the bullet's felicitous whack.
'Twas there that our major slept under
Some cannon of ours on the crest,
Till they woke him by stilling their thunder,
And he cursed them for breaking his rest,
And died in the midst of his jest.
That night-it was late in November
The dead seemed uncommonly chill
To the touch; and one chap I remember
Who took it exceedingly ill
When I dragged myself over his bill.
Well, comrades, I'm off now-good morning.
Your talk is as pleasant as pie,
But, pardon me, one word of warning:
Speak little of self, say I.
That's my way. God bless you. Good-bye.
Scheme | ABABB CDCDD EFEFF GHFHH IJIJJ KEKEE KGKGG CLCLL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (25%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1110111111 01011101 0011010011 01001001 11011011 11111110 01011011 111110110 1101011 10101101 11111101 1101111 01011010 01111001 1110111 11101101 0100111 1010110110 11010111 1101111 111010111 110010101 010110111 01011001 10101001 1111010110 110110101 111111110 011111011 01001111 111110010 0111001 1010111010 11101001 11111011 11111110 11111011 110111110 1101111 11111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,379 |
Words | 258 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 137 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 50 Views
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"At The 'National Encampment'" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1722/at-the-%27national-encampment%27>.
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